Raspberry Pi’s for the godchildren?

Its a tricky one…

I like to buy presents of my godchildren which matter. Its tricky because you don’t want to buy something boring but educational. When I was young my godparents would get me Lego, Chemistry sets and ultimately Technical Lego. This certainly helped my creativity develop.

So whats the modern equivalent of Lego? Something you can buy more of and add to?

My natural thought was to get one for the 6yr old, specially because his dad is technical and the child has already shown an amazing comfort with computers. The other male is too young and frankly more interested in super-heroes. So why not the older female?

I don’t know… (and I feel like I’ve had this debate before, so excuse me if you’ve heard it before).

I also didn’t want to buy her pink stuff but she loves it so much. Along while ago I bought her some pink lego and she seemed quite happy with that. Although to be fair I’ve never actually seen play with them. Me being a melding godfather decided one year to buy her a mini telescope, hoping it will foster a little more science in her life. Of course this nothing against the parents, I love them to bits. But my understanding of what a godfather does is to do whats best for the child regardless of how much it drives the parents insane.

So back to the point, why have I not bought her a Raspberry Pi? Is this nasty sexism which I don’t know about? Absolutely not!

I guess I balanced it all in my mind and decided it would be a little unfair to force something like this on her at this stage. Instead I bought her some more Lego but the friends subsection.

What would you do? Am I doing down the godfather title by not giving her what might be good for her? She has godmothers, maybe its the godmothers who gives her what she wants and the godfather who makes the difficult decisions. And I don’t mean that in a sexist way, the godmothers should be making the difficult decisions for the boys, while the godfathers are buying stuff he wants?

Who knows but I am certainly thinking for her birthday, I should find something which crosses over and brings out her geeky side.

1. I don’t know why you think it would be forcing it on her! Surely the point of being a child is that people give you new things to try, and you stick with the ones you like. If she tries it and doesn’t end up using it I think it’s still better than to deny her the chance to find out.

2. Nothing wrong with pink! In fact, I think one of the biggest problems is that techy things are so often clearly marketed towards men. Yes you can argue that there shouldn’t be anything inherently male about grey, navy, industrial looking things but unfortunately marketing is powerful and girls are made to think they are meant to like pretty pink sparkly things and so will not feel like the techy things are for them. So if you can’t beat ’em, join em! Let’s start making techy things in pink sparkly colours. I honestly think this would be one of the things that would make the biggest difference in getting girls interested in tech. And as an aside – I think this still applies once girls grow out of the pink phase – for me, I like aesthetics and good design, yet I see very little in the world of techy things that visually appeal to me – most of it feels like either design was not a consideration or it was designed clearly with men in mind.

Personally, I think there is no harm in liking pink, but there is harm in not exposing girls to science and technology. So I’d try and find techy toys that are also pink and sparkly!

3. My favourite toy when I was little was Marble Run, where you build Rube Goldberg-esque structures for marbles to go down. I also loved Spirograph. And Chemistry sets. I really wanted a Game Boy but remember feeling ashamed when I asked Santa for one because I thought it was unfeminine (partly because of the name!). How bad is that?! I also asked for Barbies because I thought I was meant to, but never played with them. On the other hand, I loved girly things like jewellery making kits and sticker factory because they were ‘pretty and pink’ but also interesting and creative…

hey Rosie, cheers for replying…
1. In my mind, I feel like I might be forcing her. But yes your right childhood/life should be about new experiences. As Godfather its my duty to make that a reality.
2. Nothing wrong with Pink, but it worries me buying more pink stuff. Feel like I’m reinforcing the idea that females should only like Pink things.
3. I did try and buy a chemistry set but they seem very cut back from what I remember. Sure if I look further into it, maybe I can find better ones which don’t cost the earth.

Not shying away from Science & Tech, just wondering what works for young girls. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about it and just buy her stuff and see how it goes. I think its just the fact that I didn’t even consider a Raspberry Pi for her.

The equivalent if LEGO is LEGO. Kid’s imaginations are fired by new things, stories and being able to understand a concept and build something with that knowledge/ skill. In that way they’re just like everyone, but they’re less afraid of failure. The answer is variety, simplicity and endless possibility, that’s what LEGO do well. Don’t ask ‘what colour should the toy/ kit/ game be?’ instead get something that you think you’d enjoy/ have enjoyed, and make it the best gift by playing with it, with them.